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photo by Jan Johnsen This post got many thumbs up on Google + this year:
Are you feeling a little down? depressed?
Well here is a way to fix that - go out and plant something...
Studies have found that an hour of gardening a day reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke and increases bone density more efficiently than aerobics or swimming!

In fact, even looking at nature can result in a drop in blood pressure within five minutes and lower our stress hormones.

One 16-year study in Australia revealed that those who did daily gardening even cut their risk of getting dementia in later life.

(Gardening boosts endorphins, the body’s good-mood chemicals. Personally, my theory is that we need the sunlight on our pineal gland and this can delay dementia, but I have no proof, its just a 'knowing')

The Chilean Hard Fern (Blechnum chilense) is an evergreen, slow growing fern that tolerates sun and enjoys dappled shade with adequate moisture. It is rated for USDA zone 8 (may be grown in zone 7 where it may suffer some frostburn but this can be trimmed).

In colder areas protect and shelter it in a deep woodland or in close proximity to a building.Place leaf mulch around the crowns of these plants if you experience regular hard winters.

The Chilean Spanish name for the species is ‘Costilla de vaca’ which means ‘cow’s rib’ referring to the shape of the fronds. The species can be found growing at both low and high altitudes in Chile. It often colonizes alongside roads as it is quick to establish after disruption to the land.

It spreads by underground rhizomes and can colonize an area. The young and emerging leaf fronds having an orange-rusty color but as they mature they develop a waxy dark green appearance. It reaches 2-3 ft tall, may…

The [Ch]air designed by Alexander O.D. Lorimer looks to me to be based on a bee hive and its hexagonal cells...he says the geometric base of acrylic was inspired by the geometry of soap bubbles and how they cluster.

The base of the chair appears so lightweight and fragile, yet its structure is able to support the weight of a person! Ingenious. Click on photo caption for more information.

Dwarf Acrocona Norway Spruce - Picea abies 'Acrocona' Even when young, this delightful dwarf evergreen conifer develops remarkable, raspberry-red cones on the tips of its branches in spring. 'Acrocona' means "with terminal cones on the ends of the branches." Unique not only in color but also in its irregular upright form. It becomes a broad pyramid with time, 5' tall x 4' wide in 10 years. Deer resistant. Prefers full sun in well-drained soil. Hardy to -50 degrees. USDA zone 2. It has been known since 1890, when it was found in a forest near Uppsala, Sweden

Have you heard about Cucamelons? Also called mouse melons? This tiny watermelon look-alike from south of the border is grape-sized and tastes of cucumber with a hint of lime. They are going to be very popular soon, kind of like the 'ipad mini' of the vegie world... Why? because they are pest free, drought tolerant, easy to grow, and a vigorous climber/trailer that produces masses of fruit throughout the summer!

Their taste is unusual in that - first it tastes like cucumber but the aftertaste is something tart.. Karen Bertelsen of the blog 'The Art of Doing Stuff' describes it this way: "When you bite into the mouse melon the first flavour you get is cucumber, but then your salivary glands do that weird thing where they kind of burn and cl…

Omikuji: random fortunes written on strips of paper at Shinto shrines in Japan. They are often tied to a tree.... Literally “sacred lottery”, these are usually received by making a small offering (generally a five-yen coin as it is considered good luck)and by pulling one out randomly from a box that one shakes, hoping for the resulting fortune to be good. It is not always that good....

The omikuji falls out of a small hole, scrolled up. (now they also come form a coin-slot machines). Then you tie it to a tree, pole, or similar.....

People often do this at New Year's...And then Yoko Ono took this tradition and made it into her idea of a Wish Tree - She suppliesslips of paper where guests write their wishes and tie them to a branch of a branch. Yoko Ono collects all of the wishes when the “piece is done” in an area.

Currently well over one million wishes have been tied to her trees! All of the wishes are being stored in the Imagine Peace Tower that Yoko constructed in Iceland as a …

I planted 'Salsa red' coneflower (Echinacea Sombrero™ Salsa Red) for the first time this year. It is in a west facing garden border. The hot summer sun bleaches out all pastel colors there but this vibrant red perennial was eye popping!

Combine it with blue Angelonia and Sedum ' Angelina' for a rear colorful display in summer.

In Avatar's forest of Pandora the plants glow...but that's the movies right? Well, here they come! Glowing plants for your next wedding or to light your garden path.

'Starlight Avatar’ is a nicotiana plant that emits a dim, blue-green light comparable in strength to starlight - an ambient glow that is best seen in a darkened room. It has a two- to three-month lifespan. It is an indoor plant and is unlikely to survive outdoors. The photo below is art - not the real thing.

This first “autonomously luminescent,” or autoluminescent,plant is produced by Bioglow Tech, founded by molecular biologist Dr. Alex Krichevsky. He has worked for more than six years to develop light-producing plants. Greenhouse Grower covered his research in the 2010 article, “Glowing Plants: The Next Big Opportunity.” Bioglow claims its plants emit light on their own without the need for chemicals or UV light. This is an actual plant below.

Autumn Fern (Dryopteris erythrosora) is a great hardy fern. It grows 18" high by 18" wide and has orange-red new fronds that come out in spring and in late summer bright-red spore clusters appear on frond undersides.

New growth continues through the season, giving a colorful tapestry effect of copper and green from Spring to late Fall.

The the fronds age to a lustrous dark green and remain well into winter.

It is a spreading fern, by rhizomes. Native to woodlands in Japan. Slow to establish...

Michael Tortorello has just written a wonderful NY Times article about Thomas Rainer, garden blogger extraordinaire. His blog, Grounded Designtakes a stand against the dogma of green landscaping. “The native plant movement is, in part, this Protestant idea that it has to hurt in order to do good ..... Sustainability should be more hedonistic, more pleasurable.” Let's hear it for hedonism in the garden! All the green movement people should embrace their inner 'peony lover'. I, for one, feel we should include as many native plants in our garden as we can (for the bees, butterflies, birds) but I also agree with Thomas when he says, "Don’t be dogmatic about native/exotic, straight species/cultivar".... I think we cannot deprive ourselves of some glorious dahlias or exotic Japanese ferns. Rainer writes: "When it comes to plant selection, great plantsmen are often pragmatists, not crusaders. ....What makes a garden-worthy plant is not the plant’s pedigree, but its …

Hello! Serenity in the Garden is for anyone who loves the green world and its glories - I share all things 'garden'- flowers, plants, products, designers, techniques and more. The posts are inspiring and informative and are based on my 40 years in the landscape profession.

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